12 February 2018

On What Propaganda is Condemned and Countenanced at Pyeongchang Winter Olympics

The 23rd Winter Olympiad in Pyeongchang, South Korea had a reoccurring theme of Peace, as was evident from the Opening Ceremonies. It was well known that athletes from North and South Korea would march as a unified team into Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium.

One of the draws for casual sports fans to watch the Olympics is the Opening Ceremonies. The pageantry of the Opening Ceremonies, as expressed through artistic expression as well as thematic choice sets the mood for the Olympic Games. Afterwards, there is the Parade of Nations, when all of the competitors gather in a gesture of unity and good will. During this long march of nations, television viewers often have to endure commentary from NBC announcers to add color and context to the visuals. Often this dialogue is pap or seems scripted.However, when the Japanese team made their debut at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, NBC Asia correspondent Joshua Cooper Ramos offered an incredible generalization. Ramos claimed that Koreans looked with admiration to Japan as an important example of cultural, economic and technological transformation.Several hours after uttering this insensitive and insulting insinuation, NBC Sports issued a hasty apology.

NBC paid $967 million for broadcast rights for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and it would seem that they did not want to insult their hosts.With that in mind, one wonders why NBC keeps pushing North Korean propaganda while covering the Winter Olympics. No doubt that a unified Korean team marching during the Parade of Nations was a big story. It epitomizes the international aspiration of brotherhood and exemplifies the Pyeongchang Game's theme of Peace.

It is understandable that an Olympic broadcaster would want to capitalize on controversy by showing how close Vice President Mike Pence was seated to North Korean Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong during the Opening Ceremonies.The coverage of the North Korea cheerleaders during the womens' hockey game between Korea and Switzerland does raise eyebrows. It was a cute featurette to have a piece about the some of the 200 woman squad of the North Korean "Army of Beauty" cheerleaders leading chants during the 0-8 rout of Korea. Some say that the synchronized chants of the North Korea Beauty Cheerleaders stole the show. But what what telling is what they chanted and how they performed. These NPDK cheerleaders chanted "Unity" waving "neutral" flags of a unified Korea. After each goal by their opponent, they chanted: "Cheer up!". Perhaps that exemplifies a cultural trait. What has been shown but little explored are instances in which the female Beauty Squad use big heads of a Korean man. Hmm. Who could this be?

UPDATE 02/12/2018 BBC News quotes Korean media that the DPRK Army of Beauties cheerleaders were holding up big heads of Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un (the first of the Hermit Kingdom's Juche post World War II dictators). Yet the South Korean Unification Ministry insists that the cheerleaders were just holding up cut outs of "a good looking man".